The war in Ukraine should never have started

2024-02-23 01:37:52

The large-scale invasion of Russian troops into Ukrainian territory It began on February 24, 2022. Since then, more than four million people have been forcibly displaced and six million left the country in order to escape the crossfire. In addition, schools, health centers and infrastructure were destroyed.

Two years later, the UN resident coordinator in the country, Denise Brown, assures that humanitarian support will continue, despite continued threats to staff and civilians.

–Two years ago, Russia’s large-scale armed invasion of Ukraine began. How is the situation today?

–I think it is important to emphasize that attacks occur almost every day in certain parts of the country. There is an immediate reaction of fear, of not knowing what is coming at you, of hearing the explosions and thinking: will the defense system shoot them down or will the drones and missiles get through?

The government and aid workers, working closely together, respond immediately by deploying psychosocial support, repairing windows, doors and roofs, and often providing food or cash.

But what also comes with those attacks, especially for the population, is loss; loss of life, loss of home, loss of a sense of security. And often, when schools or health clinics are attacked, access to essential services, a doctor, a clinic, a school or electricity, is also lost. Loss is a great feeling here.

It is with great sadness that I say that we have become quite good at this, because we have to do it almost every day.

–How are relief efforts in Ukraine coordinated?

–I think we have real added value in the regions. There is immediate coordination through the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), and we have people deployed in the regions throughout the oblast (Ukrainian administrative regions), which work together with the authorities.

We have a network of more than 500 partners, local actors who are closest to where these things happen and they are deployed immediately and we support them. It is a good network, coordination works well.

–Can they still travel throughout the country?

We have more than 3,000 UN staff, many of them deployed in Kharkiv, Dnipro, Mikolaiv, Odessa, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk; places where there are attacks daily.

That means it is even more important that I, and the senior management of the Organization, get out as much as possible. I cannot expect staff, national or international, to be in Kharkiv and experience the daily missile attacks on the city, and I not go there and be with them.

So that’s what I’m doing. But it also gives me the opportunity to talk to regional and local authorities and to go in convoys to the front line.

Thus, the authorities know and understand that the highest-ranking UN person in Ukraine is willing to be with them. And I think this has become one of the most powerful messages of this response.

It’s not just regarding us delivering supplies. We, and NGOs, are providing support. I think it’s an incredibly important signal from us that, no matter how difficult it is, we will do everything we can to be with them.

Back to life

–Did you ever think the war would last so long?

–I’m surprised it lasted so long because this is not the answer. It was never the answer. And Ukrainians are experiencing so much violence, loss and pain. All I can say is that it has to end. The economy is in tatters, civil infrastructure appears to be regularly targeted, lives are lost, families are broken, and gender-based violence is on the rise. All these things affect the population of Ukraine. There has to be peace. These people need to get back to their lives. The war should never have started.

–But there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. Do you expect this war to continue for several years?

–I base myself on the data. These people are very needy. And even if the war ended tomorrow, the needs will still be enormous in this country. It will take years and years to rebuild this country and to confront the trauma. So my prediction is that whatever happens with this horrible and illegal war, the people of Ukraine will continue to need help, both humanitarian and recovery, for the foreseeable future.

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